Oh how they howled! Chuckled. Mocked. “What a simpleton,” they declared when George W. Bush referred to himself as “The Decider.” Obama, determined to be anything but Bush, should now just as boldy claim that he is “The In-Decider”
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.
After many months of dithering on whether to accept the request of the General (that he put in charge of Afghanistan) for more troops, Obama has finally decided not to decide, again! The unwavering vacillation of the Commander-in-chief on the best way to achieve his own policy is remarkable if only for its staggering obtuseness.
While Winston Churchill routinely criticized the naïveté of Neville Chamberlain for his policy of Nazi appeasement, he likewise always maintained that Chamberlain veritably sought nothing but peace. Chamberlain, time and again, gave in to Hilter falsely convicted he was a man of his word. Chamberlain ingenuously accepted assurances that after the annexation of the Sudetanland, Hilter had no further territorial ambitions in Europe. His short-lived triumph of naïveté was smashed by harsh reality when, within months, Hilter took the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Chamberlain’s initial reaction was to say that England should stay the course, that peace would only be achieved from the avoidance of war at any cost. Chamberlain, for his part, then took a few days to mull the effect of his efforts after the Hilter’s taking of Czechoslovakia. Then, in an about face stunning even Churchill, Chamberlain publicly recognized the folly of his policy and began the preparations for war.
Even Chamberlain, probably the most maligned appeaser of all time, was capable of making a decision when faced with the cold hard facts. Even Chamberlain eventually recognized that the peace he sought would only be realized in war. Even Chamberlain realized that his failure to respond to the challenges of the aggressor increased the aggression and the cost of undoing it. Even Chamberlain.
For this Churchill, while leaving his judgment to history, defended the honor and motives of Chamberlain to the end. Will we be able to do the same? I can’t decide.
